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The International Vacuum Microelectronics Conference (IVMC), which rotates its venue between America, Europe, and Asia, returns to the USA in 2001 and will be held at the University of California in Davis, August 13-16, 2001. The IEEE served as the pioneering sponsor for this international conference with the first IVMC having been held in Willamsburg, Virginia in 1988. Since then, the IVMC has been held in a diverse set of locations, including Vienna, Austria, Newport, Rhode Island, St. Petersburg, Russia (the first IEEE conference ever held in the former Soviet republic), South Korea, and (most-recently, in August, 2000) Ghanzhou, China. UC Davis is proud to join this group by hosting the 14th IVMC in its beautiful Northern California college-town setting. A group of approximately 200 attendees is anticipated, coming from all parts of the world to present the latest research results in the field of Vacuum Microelectronics.
Field-Emission Vacuum Microelectronics has evolved from a promising laboratory curiosity to a foundational technology for exciting, emerging applications. Pioneering work during the 70's and 80's in the field, which was centered on the use of low-workfunction metals and semiconductors fashioned into microscopic needles, as "field-emission tips", was restrained by the somewhat crude microfabrication tools and techniques which were available at that time. Along with the exponential increase in microstructure feature density, driven by the semiconductor memory and microprocessor demands being imposed today, have come the benefits of superior lithographic and fine-feature microfabrication tools and methods which have advanced the vacuum microelectronics arena substantially. Consequently, field emission devices are now being fabricated in large-scale arrays, with nanoscopic features, and operating at low voltages. Furthermore, the novel microstructure fabrication techniques which have been developed in the sensor, actuator, and MEMS community are being applied to vacuum microelectronics and are resulting in a diverse variety of emitter structures and configurations. At the same time, exciting advances in materials science, specifically in the areas of deposition of carbon nanotubes, microcrystalline diamond and graphite films, and wide-bandgap semiconductors (GaN, SiC, diamond, etc.), as well as novel low-workfunction metal carbides, have resulted in a virtually limitless set of emission surface modification possibilities which improve performance and dramatically increase the potential applications for field emitters.
Early work in vacuum microelectronics focused on the application of field-emitters to high-frequency switching devices, radiation-hard electronics systems, and RF amplifiers. However, in the past decade, the use of field-emission devices as pixel cathodes in flat-panel field-emission displays (FED's) emerged as an important commercial market, resulting in several American, Asian, and European corporations deciding to develop and market prototype displays. As the display market is just now starting to include commercial FED's among their available products, several other applications of field-emission cathodes are emerging as having commercial potential. These include the use of field-emission sources for specialty lamps, such as traffic signals, backlights for laptop displays, pixel units for jumbo displays, theatre lights, and environmentally-safe, low-power replacements for compact fluorescent lights. Highly specialized opportunities also exist, including nanoscopic X-ray sources for in-vivo medical procedures and remote imaging, and numerous spectroscopic and instrument applications of high-brightness electron sources. In the field of vacuum microelectronics, this is an exciting time because of the opportunities which now exist.
This year's Conference venue, Davis, CA, is located 65 miles northeast of San Francisco and 15 miles west of California's capital, Sacramento. UC Davis, with 26,500 students, is the third largest of the UC system and has the third largest College of Engineering in California. The city is readily accessible from three major airports and lies in close proximity to many major California vacation spots, such as the Sierra Nevada, with Lake Tahoe or Yosemite, the Pacific Coast, with Carmel and San Francisco, and the Napa/Sonoma wine country. August in Davis typically enjoys warm days and cool Delta-breeze nights. The City of Davis is famous for its restaurants, art galleries, bookshops, and a unique college atmosphere. Attendees can stay in a broad range of hotels, or take advantage of very economical student housing (with meals, if desired) which is made available through UC Davis Conference Services. Included with the Conference Program will be a garden reception, a field trip and dinner to a Napa-Valley winery, and the Conference Banquet, which will be held at the famous California Railroad Museum in nearby historic Old Sacramento. As in previous IVMC's, a Companion's Program will also be organized.
The Conference Committee will be selecting oral and poster presentations from 200-word short abstracts, with a submission deadline of May 1, 2001. Submission by e-mail text (no attachments) is strongly encouraged, however regular mail or FAX submissions will be acceptable; all contact information is given below. Accepted presenters will be notified and a two-page Extended Abstracts, for inclusion in the IVMC 2001 Technical Digest, will be due by July 1, 2001. As in past years, full-length manuscripts, for publication in a refereed Journal, will be received at the Conference. The General Chairman of IVMC 2001 is Prof. Charles E. Hunt of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC Davis. Prof. Hunt directs the Vacuum Microelectronics Group at UC Davis and members of this Group, including Dr. S. A. Chakhovskoi and N. Chubun, will be assisting in organizing the Program. Questions regarding the Technical Program should be directed to this Group by e-mail at ivmc@ece.ucdavis.edu . The facilities and registration arrangements will be directed by Ms. Julie Sheehan of UC Davis Conference Services. Non-technical questions concerning the Conference should be directed to her, by e-mail, at jasheehan@ucdavis.edu . Most questions can also be answered by visiting the IVMC 01 website at http://www.cevs.ucdavis.edu/Cofred/Public/Aca .
Prof. Charles E. Hunt
University of California
Davis, CA